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Good conditions greet deer hunt opener

JANESVILLE — Too bad the snow didn't come in time for opening day.

Wisconsin hunters enjoyed excellent conditions over the weekend for the start of the state's nine-day regular hunting season, according to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reports. The only thing missing was snow for tracking, according to the department's Web site.

It was a busy weekend at Footville Meat Market, 280 N. Gilbert St., Footville, spokeswoman Peggy Jenson said. Lots of hunters registered deer, she said. But more people than normal took the carcasses home rather than leaving them for processing, she said.

"I suppose because of the economy, people want to do it themselves," Jenson said.

Nine people donated deer to Target Hunger, a venison donation program, Jenson said. Footville Meat Market and Bob Black Meat Processing, 130 Harrison St., Delavan, are local donation sites for Target Hunger.

More Wisconsinites hit the woods this year than last year. The DNR reported 1,633 resident hunters bought deer licenses; non-resident licenses were down by 162.

A total of 631,223 people bought gun licenses. Ninety-four percent of those were resident hunters, although hunters from several states and countries bought Wisconsin hunting licenses, according to DNR data.

The total number of hunters, including bow and other licenses, is about 835,000, according to DNR data. That's up from 2007.

The greatest number of licenses sold was in Dane County.

Saturday, the opening day of the hunt, was incident-free, according to DNR spokeswoman Laurel Steffes.

But several accidents took place on Sunday:

-- The DNR reported one fatal hunting accident. A 48-year-old Appleton man was shot Sunday near Shiocton in Outagamie County. Authorities say the man was shot at 10:40 a.m. Sunday.

The DNR did not release the man's name this morning.

-- In separate incidents Sunday in Shawano County, one hunter suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and a 24-year-old man from Caroline was shot in the shoulder when a deer ran between him and a member of his hunting party.

-- And Sunday afternoon, a man received a non-life threatening gunshot wound to his leg in Washington County. Authorities believe the man was shot by someone else in his hunting party.

-- Hunters in Fond du Lac County found a badly decomposed body in the woods.

Sheriff's Lt. Rick Olig said the badly decomposed body was found about 9:17 a.m. Sunday in Ashford Township, which is southwest of Campbellsport.

He says the body hasn't been identified, but the hunters who found it think it is a woman's body because of the clothing.

Olig says no women are missing in the Fond du Lac area, but investigators are checking with surrounding counties to see if the body matches any of their missing persons reports.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.